“If teenagers share their faith consistently over the short term, they’re more likely to keep their faith over the long term.”
Ed: Tell us a little bit about Dare 2 Share.
Greg: Dare 2 Share is all about raising up teenagers to reach their generation with the hope of Jesus.
I started Dare 2 Share Ministries 28 years ago. I ran Dare 2 Share part-time while working as a pastor of a church in Arvada, Colorado. After the Columbine High School massacre in 1999, I said “Enough is enough” and shifted my focus on Dare 2 Share full-time.
I am convinced that stopping school shootings is not a matter of political intervention, but spiritual transformation. Nothing transforms like the message of Jesus. I witnessed this firsthand as a child when inner city, violent family members, one by one, were transformed by the power of the gospel. They went from street fighters to street preachers almost overnight.
It was in this setting that, as a fatherless kid in a crime-ridden part of the city, I got my calling to reach teens. Since that fateful day in 1999, Dare 2 Share has impacted the lives of hundreds of thousands of teenagers across the country, motivating and equipping them to relationally reach out to those who don’t know Jesus with the gospel message of hope.
Ed: Why is there an urgency to reach teenagers with the message of the gospel now more than ever?
The idea is that if teenagers share their faith consistently over the short term, they’re more likely to keep their faith over the long term.
What motivates me the most is not just retention of the current and coming generation of Christian teenagers raised in Christian families, but also the possibility of exponential growth of the church through teenagers reaching their generation for Jesus.
What if we did more than retain teenagers in the church? What if we gained more teenagers in the faith ...
from Christianity Today Magazine https://ift.tt/2nzMUyV
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